Near Eastern Tribal Societies during the Nineteenth Century Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 What is a tribe?
- 2 Travellers in the Levant during the nineteenth century
- 3 The dynamics of territorial and power structures
- 4 Oral traditions
- 5 Tribal society and its relation to the landscape
- 6 Tribal institutions
- 7 Relations between the tribes and the state
- 8 From tribe to tribal state: three case studies
- 9 The economy of tribal societies
- 10 Ethnicity and the sense of belonging
- 11 Women in tribal societies
- 12 Religion and folklore
- 13 Back in time: historical parallels
- Notes
- References
- Index
11 - Women in tribal societies
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 What is a tribe?
- 2 Travellers in the Levant during the nineteenth century
- 3 The dynamics of territorial and power structures
- 4 Oral traditions
- 5 Tribal society and its relation to the landscape
- 6 Tribal institutions
- 7 Relations between the tribes and the state
- 8 From tribe to tribal state: three case studies
- 9 The economy of tribal societies
- 10 Ethnicity and the sense of belonging
- 11 Women in tribal societies
- 12 Religion and folklore
- 13 Back in time: historical parallels
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power …
(Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part, Question 92, Article 1)As a rule, I am bound to say, we had courteous treatment from all, even when they robbed us.
(Jane Lethaby, 1887)Introduction
Western travellers were often shocked by the treatment of women in Near Eastern tribal societies. Burckhardt (1830: 199) is very clear about how, in his opinion, Bedouin and Arab tribes viewed the “weaker sex”:
Women are regarded as beings much inferior to men, and, although seldom treated with neglect or indifference, they are always taught that their sole business is cooking and working … They grind wheat in the hand-mill, or pound it in the mortar; they prepare the breakfast and dinner; knead and bake the bread; make butter, fetch water, work at the loom, mend the tent-covering, and are, it must be owned, indefatigable; while the husband or brother sits before the tent smoking his pipe, or, perceiving that a stranger has arrived in the camp, by the extraordinary volume of smoke issuing from the moharrem of the tent where the stranger has been received as a guest, to that tent he goes, salutes the stranger, and expects an invitation to dine and drink coffee with him.
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- Information
- Near Eastern Tribal Societies during the Nineteenth CenturyEconomy, Society and Politics between Tent and Town, pp. 216 - 234Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2013